Will the new Myspace succeed?

Can Myspace get people to come back and rejoin their network? Check out their video:



Josh Burns blogged, "The New Myspace", and this is my comment I left on his post:

I will personally always join any social media network to try it out. Now, the mass public... Myspace will not work unless if it's incredibly focused and different. Based on the video and their intro paragraph on new.Myspace.com, it looks like they aren't going to be all that focused.

Part of their intro says, "empowering people to express themselves however they want. So whether you’re a musician, photographer, filmmaker, designer or just a dedicated fan"

It has the inklings of maybe being different and focused. But if you are a network for for creatives, then say "we are a network for creatives." This sorta half-way, yeah, we are like a better facebook is not going to work.

I remember in 2005 when Facebook was just for colleges. I was jealous of how colleges got to have this nice clean interface, while the rest of the world had to deal with ugly Myspace customizations. It was still a challenge to getting all my late 20s/early 30s friends to join Myspace, because of the perception that it was for teens, because of all the bling.

Then when Facebook opened up to the non-college world in 2006, I knew that it was going to defeat Myspace. People thought I was crazy, because Myspace had such a foothold in social media. But it was still a challenge getting people in their 30s and above to join. Facebook with its clean serious interface would solve that. Facebook became the place where it was alright for anyone to join.

People hated Myspace cuz it was ugly. Cuz it was for teens. I really doubt that people will move back to Myspace, because we already spend too much time on Facebook. If Google couldn't get a ton of people to use Google Plus (and it's freakin Google), then there's no way Myspace will overcome the challenge to get people to rejoin their network of what was crap.

To overcome perceptions, Myspace needs to be incredibly focused. No halfway crap. Halfway doesn't explain things. They need to change people's minds. But they are such a huge corporate entity, there is no way they can do something so daring as to be so incredibly focused. It just can't happen.

If Myspace can give a more focused mission, then I hope they succeed. I always like an underdog story. I'm still rooting for Yahoo.